HISTORY OF SIEMENS BROTHERS

Siemens' interest in electricity began with while laying telegraph lines for the Prussian army.  In 1847, he set up the firm of Siemens Brothers in partnership with brother Wilhelm, who went to England to represent the firm and work on his own inventions.  In 1851, Siemens Brothers laid a deep-sea telegraph cable from England to France, the first international connection. Many other cables were laid down, and the firm also developed high electric tensions for long-distance telegraph lines.

Siemens saw the potential for producing equipment geared toward the new electrical industry.  Later, Siemens Brothers joined with Johann Halske to create the electrical firm of Siemens & Halske.  In 1965 the company is renamed Siemens Brothers.

In 1866, Werner discovered and applied the dynamo-electrical principle. Drawing on English physicist Michael Faraday's work on electricity around 1830, this principle is based on the fact that magnetism and electricity can be converted into each other.  Though others had devised similar inventions, the Siemens firm led the way in developing dynamos for electricity generation.

Siemens & Halske manufactured the first successful electric train, which in 1879 was exhibited at the Berlin International Exhibition. From telegraphs, cable laying, dynamos, and railroad equipment, the company moved into electric lighting.

In 1880 Siemens Brothers became a public company under the name of Siemens Brothers & Co. Ltd.

At the outbreak of World War 1, on 14th August 1914, all German assets were confiscated by the UK Government and from that point onwards all contact with the German Siemens was severed.  In 1917 the Custodian of Enemy Property sold Siemens Bros. to C. Birch Crisp & Co., a financial syndicate from London.  In 1919 Birch Crisp disposed of the company to English Electric Ltd.

A.E.I. purchased Siemens Brothers in 1955 thus owning four independent lamp businesses: B.T.H., Ediswan, Metrovick and Siemens.  In subsequently dropping these names AEI's lamp business suffered badly.

The Edison Swan Electric Company had bought a cable works at Stowfield in the Forest of Dean called the Lydbrook Cable Works.  Edison Swan was taken over by A.E.I. and the Stowfield factory was integrated with the Siemens Brothers works at Woolwich.  At it's height this factory employed 1100 people and closed in 1966.

See the History of AEI

Précis History
1843
Wilhelm (Sir William) Siemens goes to England on behalf of his brother Werner to sell the rights to Werner's patented gold-plating technique.

1850
A Siemens & Halske sales agency is established under William's direction.

1853
William takes over the running of the English business, which primarily involves the selling of water meters.

1858
The Londoner agency is converted into an independent company known as Siemens, Halske & Co. with its own workshops.

1863
A cable factory is built in Woolwich.

1865
The company is renamed Siemens Brothers.

1868-1869
Siemens Brothers lays the Russia to Teheran section of the Indo-European telegraph line.

1873-1874
Siemens Brothers laid their first Atlantic Cable this year.  The cable steamer 'Faraday' was built specially for this purpose.  See www.atlantic-cable.com/Cables/CableTimeLine/index1850.htm for more information.

1880
Siemens Brothers is converted into a stock company called Siemens Brothers & Co. Ltd.

1881
An order is received to supply electric lighting for the Savoy Theatre in London.

1905
Siemens Brothers Dynamoworks Ltd. is founded in Stafford.

1908
An incandescent lamp factory is built in Dalston.

1910
The decision is made to expand into the business of telephone apparatus manufacture.

1911
A Rubber-coated copper-wire cable factory was built in 1910-1911 for Siemens Brothers to designs by Siemens works manager, W Dieselhorst and in-house architects, Herbert and Helland using the Kahn reinforced concrete system.  A five-storey extension was added in 1942.  The building is now listed and resides at 37 Bowater Road, London, SE18 5TF.

1911
The telephone manufacturing organisation is established.

1914
The shares of the English Siemens company are confiscated by the British government.

1929
Contacts are re-established; a cooperation agreement is concluded.

1951
In 1951 the Siemens No. 17 System was modernised for the Port of London Authority.  The system comprised 240 lines for Head Office and 699 lines for the five docks and was manned by eight switchboard operators.

1955
A.E.I. purchases the company and amalgamates the company with Edison Swan Electric Company to form Siemens Edison Swan.

1967
Siemens Edison Swan is absorbed into GEC when it took over A.E.I.

  

Last revised: November 29, 2024